I’ve been pootling around in Forza 3 on my 360, mainly playing the “free play hot lap” option that just has me and the car on the track, no other cars to get in my way or pass me, it’s a great way of just having a nice, casual, relaxing drive at triple-digit speeds in cars I would never be able to afford…
I’ve recently discovered the wonders of the Nurburgring and have come down with a virtual case of “Ring Fever”, it’s basically the only track I play now, as it’s got it all, corners, chicanes, the fun little “Carousels” and that wonderful straight at the end where you can just drop the hammer and let your car thunder onwards to the finish line…and beyond
Coincidentally, I’ve also been watching a lot of Top Gear on Netflix, which lets me try out a good number of cars they have presented…
Just a few quick capsule reviews of the cars I’ve played with on The Ring…
Saturn Ion Redline; no, Top Gear never drove this one, nor i think would they, except to either make fun of it and/or destroy it in one of their “Challenges”, but since I drive a base model non-Redline Ion in real life, it gives me a baseline for comparison, and yes, the Ion in the game handles and sounds like a real Ion, serious case of understeer in the twisties and a lack of low end grunt and high end scream, it’s all middle range and absolute mediocrity
Okay, on to the fancy stuff and my favorites (in the order the game presents them to you), quick evaluation after a run on stage A of The Ring
Alfa Romeo Brera; nice, crisp handling, but a little soft in the middle of the RPM band, pulls hard from a stop and near the upper range, but throttle response goes to mush in the middle RPM bands keep it in the grunty low end or wind it out, the mids are not it’s strong suit
Aston Martin DB9 Coupé; A favorite of the Top Gear crew, and now I know why, buttery smooth powerband throughout THE ENTIRE REV RANGE!, absolutely NO dead spots or flat spots, razor-sharp handling, gobs of torque, endless power, it just keeps going, no weaknesses in the powertrain or chassis that I can find, it’s the first car I have yet driven in the game that I had no trouble keeping completely on the twisty Ring course with no excursions into the grass, this thing is a scalpel, or as Comic Book Guy would have said… “Best…Handling…Ever!”
I’ll be adding this to my list of favorite cars in the game for sure
Oh and interesting piece of trivia, the tachometer needle sweeps backwards from what I consider a “normal” tach needle sweep, most tachs sweep clockwise, the Aston’s tach sweeps counterclockwise…
WHOAAAA!!! WOWIEE, HEHEHEHE!!! on a whim I just tried the Aston DBR9, their full-race-kit version of the DB9, and it was the FIRST car in the game that my jaw just-hit-the-floor on, absolutely UNREAL acceleration, like riding a bullet, and handling even sharper and more controllable than the street-spec DB9;
from the starting line to the bridge I hit 150 MPH, to the first corner, 170 MPH…
this one’s an absolute screamer, I had a huge grin the whole time… can one fall in love with a car? 
Audi R8 5.2 FSI Quattro; I had my best time on The Ring with this one, the combination of that huge Audi 8 cylinder and AWD is a winning combo, beat my previous best time in a Ferrari F40 Competition, a little “floatier” handling than the Aston DB9, but overall not too bad, no holes in the powerband either
Bugatti Veyron; Of course I had to try The Fastest Car In The World on the Ring…
It was… embarrasing, the V really showed me up, I can’t drive it very well, it seems to alternate between being floaty at low speeds, gets very twitchy as you accelerate, and only seems to settle down once you’re in triple-digit speed where the bodywork can create enough downforce to stick it to the road, the V will really show flaws in your driving form… I love it for what it has achieved, being the world’s fastest car (a car that even Captain Slow can drive at triple digit speeds, for Og’s sake), but I’m nowhere near good enough to handle it
Dodge Viper ACR10; my benchmark car in GT2/3/4 on my Playstations, I just love the brutal simplicity of the Big Snake, the handling is actually pretty sharp overall, but there’s just the tiniest bit of lag through the corners, it’s pretty stable overall, but the most endearing feature of Big Snake is that when you turn off the stupid nannyware traction control, you can steer the car with those huge meaty rear tires as well as with the steering wheel, enter the corner slow, and as you apex the turn, goose the throttle a bit to make the rear end step out, and countersteer to keep your racing line on target
Simple, yes, brutal, yes, lovable nonetheless, oh most definitely YES!, the Viper is a lovable simpleton
Ferrari; too many to choose from, I’ll post my “reviews” on them in another post, this post is a quick overview of some of my faves, faves that include;
'64 250 GTO
'84 GTO (the “Magnum P.I.” Ferrari)
F40
F50
F60 Enzo
Mercedes SLR; I admit it, in my mind, one word sums up Mercedes cars… BORING, I saw them as the choice of soul-less corporate drones, mindless conformists, trapped in their stupid business suits, working a mindless soul-crushing job, and the Merc was the automotive equivalent of the “stuffed suit”, boring, sluggish, and just plain no fun, boredom, thy name is M-B
I was wrong, at least in one instance, the M-B SLR, the thing is impressive, an aggressive, angry, growly exhaust note, gobs of power, and crisp, razor sharp handling, the SLR is one Merc I’d willingly drive, still hate their Corporate Dronemobiles though
Y’know, I just realized it, when driving the SLR, I felt like I was behind the wheel of a Dodge Viper, similar growly motor, similar “steer it with the rear wheels” thing going on, the only difference is the SLR lacked the Viper’s “laggy” steering response, it had a crispness the Viper lacked, maybe the SLR can be described as a German Viper…
‘82 Porsche 911 Turbo 3.3; this car has a special place in my heart, as it was the first Supercar I actually rode in, back in high school, one of my freinds’ father was a pilot for Delta airlines, and he took me for a ride in his Porsche 911, gorgeous inky black car, the first time I felt the crush of the car squashing me in my seat, I was hooked, 0-60 in 5.8 seconds, gotta love that, if I ever won Megabucks, I’d get my dream car, an '82 Porsche 911 (or a '69 Dodge Charger, gotta love the Charger too) in a heartbeat, sure there are faster and better handling cars out there that clearly outclass the '82 911, but that car brings back fond memories
The 911 handling is legendary, and is well recreated in the game, not to mention there’s something just…right… about driving the Nurburgring in a 911… something akin to perfection…
Saturn Sky Redline; What!, a Saturn in a list of Supercars? MacTech’s crazy, I tell you, Mad!, thoroughly bonkers…
Hold on a minute and hear me out, the Saturn Sky/Pontiac Solstice/Vauxhall VX220 Turbo is based on the Opel GT, an actual sportscar, and more importantly, it’s the only sportscar in Forza 3 that I HAVE ACTUALLY DRIVEN, during “The Dark Times”, I worked for a short while at my local Saturn dealer as a salesdroid (and was too honest for my own good, i wasn’t a good salesdroid, didn’t last long there, but i didn’t care, it was a “pay bills while I search for a better job” job…
anyway… I drove the Sky Redline so I could see what it was like and be able to present it better (I DID sell one in my short tenure there…), and the Sky is a great deal of fun, it accelerates strongly, and handles brilliantly well, handles like it’s on rails, and sticks to the road like glue, in fact, in the game, I had just previously raced Ring Section A in the Porsche 911, and the game loaded my ghost data for the 911, so that race was Porsche 911 Vs. Saturn Sky…
The 911 got the holeshot on me, but once under power, the Sky totally trounced the 911, it outcornered and outaccelerated the Teutonic Titan, I was expecting to have my virtual arse handed to me by the Mighty 911, but it was utterly devistated by the Saturn Sky, absolutely amazing, a 2.0 liter turbocharged GM Ecotec four cylinder outperformed a Porsche flat-6
TVR Sagaris and Cerbera Speed 12; Jeremy Clarkson of Top Gear described the cars produced by TVR thusly; “if you do one thing, one tiny thing wrong, the car will try to kill you”, and he’s right, maybe a bit theatrical, but one word can sum up TVR’s offerings…
“TWITCHY”
They have to be one of the hardest, most unforgiving cars to drive, they demand absolute concentration and perfection, if your concentration lapses, even momentarily, the car will bite back
the Sagaris is a tad more forgiving, but still has that trademark TVR twitchiness
So, what are your favorite cars to run on The Ring (Playstation, Xbox360, or even in real life, for those Dopers who have had the honor to actually drive The Ring…)
